The entry of the community body into the proceedings causes a conflict of jurisdiction over the crimes in dispute that will force the attorney general to intervene
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has asked its Anti-Corruption colleagues to appear in the proceedings opened by the emergency contract signed by the Community of Madrid for the acquisition of masks during the pandemic and from which Tomás Díaz Ayuso, brother of the regional president, benefited.
The community body led by the prosecutor Concepción Sabadell, former Anti-Corruption representative in the ‘Gürtel case’, wants information on the award because it understands that a crime of embezzlement of European funds has been committed, since the masks were paid for with Feder funds. (for regional development).
However, what should be a formal process of collaboration between prosecutors – in the ‘Acuamed case’ on the management of hydraulic works, for example, a similar situation occurred without consequences – has now led to a conflict of powers due to the refusal of the Chief Anticorruption Prosecutor, Alejandro Luzón, to deliver this documentation to his colleague Sabadell.
Luzon understands, according to legal sources consulted, that the alleged commission of a crime of embezzlement of community funds is not appreciated at this time of the proceedings because the 250,000 masks reached their destination. But the conflict occurs, above all, in the refusal to send information related to related crimes -influence peddling, prevarication or negotiation prohibited to officials-, since they consider that they have nothing to do with the funds of the European Union , but refer to the functioning of a Spanish public administration.
Thus, these sources point out that Anti-Corruption have refused to facilitate these proceedings to the European Public Prosecutor’s Office and have raised a conflict of powers that must now be resolved by the State Attorney General, Dolores Delgado, after listening next Monday to the Board of Prosecutors of Hall. This is the advisory body that brings together the highest-ranking prosecutors and which Delgado is obliged to listen to before making a decision.
Community regulations
The doubt, therefore, resides in whether that competition drags the entire cause; that is, if to investigate the embezzlement, Sabadell must also collect the rest of the investigation. The law that regulates the powers of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office establishes that this department is competent to investigate crimes that affect European financial interests, but also those that are “inextricably linked” to them.
And this is where the dispute arises, because the community department maintains that the investigation of the contract for 1.5 million euros to the company Priviet Sportive SL, managed by Daniel Alcázar and from which Tomás Díaz Ayuso pocketed some 283,000 euros, is not it can be divided in two and the head of Anti-Corruption defends that it is.
If Delgado considers that the case can be broken off, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office will investigate only the embezzlement of Feder funds, while Anti-Corruption would focus on the rest of the crimes.
The president of the Community of Madrid, asked this Friday about the step taken by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, has downplayed this conflict in the Public Prosecutor’s Office. “The Anticorruption Prosecutor’s Office itself has already corrected this information, it has made it clear that there is no type of crime of corruption, the same thing that the Chamber of Accounts, an independent body, the Intervention, made up of independent officials, or the commission of Assembly contracts. After so many organizations, the UN is missing to make a pronouncement on the matter,” said Isabel Díaz Ayuso ironically.
It was on February 23 when Anti-Corruption decreed that it open pre-procedural proceedings to investigate the contract of the Community of Madrid to the company of the childhood friend of the Díaz Ayusos, after the opposition parties in the regional Assembly except Vox claimed in writing an investigation. Behind the dissemination of this contract and the personal rivalry between the Madrid president and Pablo Casado is the origin of the fall of the PP leader.
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